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When I got to the block of run-down apartments, I looked around and there was no sign of anyone who shouldn't have been there. No fancy cars, nothing out of place.

Pavel had told me he'd cleared out the apartment, but maybe he was bluffing? Or maybe his men weren't as thorough as he thought. Surely there was something still there. My hidden emergency fund? Some clothing. Clothes that fit me would definitely help. Shoes would have also been great.

The socks only worked until I accidentally stepped in a puddle.

I just needed something, anything that could give me a sliver of control in this world where I clearly had none. Just something of mine.

I climbed the four flights of dirty stairs to my door, before I realized I didn't even have my keys. It didn’t matter; the door was open. Pavel's men must have left it unlocked. I meant, why not? It wasn’t like I had anything of value to steal.

One step inside was all it took for my stomach to plummet at the realization that there was absolutely nothing here.

His men had been very thorough.

The space was a hollow shell of what it once was. The only things that were left were my cheap, impersonal furniture. Most of which I had inherited from the lasttenant or rescued from the trash heap when someone else abandoned their apartment.

There was nothing of me in this space. It was like I had never been here.

My breath came out in ragged pants as realization set in.

He had erased me.

Pavel had taken absolutely every sign of me, everything that proved that I had lived here and that I existed. It was all gone.

Tears stung behind my eyes as my stomach rolled, and heat flashed over my cheeks.

How could he?

Pavel had stolen my existence.

How dare he!

Before I could really understand what had happened and figure out if I could or even wanted to do something about it, a shadow moved. I wasn't alone.

"Did you really think you could escape me so easily?" Dark amusement danced in his eyes, but the threat in Pavel’s low voice didn’t quite mask something raw underneath it. Something that sounded almost like…pain? Concern?

But he wasn't asking a question.

He was rendering a verdict.

Just by stepping through that door I had proven that I was guilty. I had sealed my fate.

He was my judge, my jury, and he would be my executioner. Was he going to put me on my knees and shoot me in the head like he had the last uncooperative man?

"Why?" The bitter word left my lips before I could stopit. Did I even want to stop it? What was the point in holding my tongue? He had already wiped me from the face of the earth. It would make it that much easier to kill me if no one, not even a landlord, was looking for me.

"What did I do that was so horrible that you had to erase my existence?"

"You are a very bad girl," he said. There it was again; as he looked at me, really looked at me, something flickered across his features so quickly that I almost missed it.

Could it be relief he’d found me?

No. Stop it. Don’t romanticize him…this.

I was nothing more than a doll he could torment before tossing away.

That was all I was…entertainment.

"Fuck you," I spat, the words venomous. More contempt rose from my chest, hatred accelerating the already rapid pounding of my heart.